CHAPTER FIVE
BrightFlight was, to be perfectly truthful, starting to worry about Delta. She was becoming increasingly withdrawn and moody, despite his efforts to get her talking.
"Is it just me or does Delta keep disappearing?" he expressed his concerns to StarryNight.
She shrugged. "It evades me as to why."
"So you noticed it too..." he frowned.
They were silent for a moment.
StarryNight began again. "We're having trouble. LeonIva and EagleWing have bought back reports from their patrols, and we've got neighbours. They're anything BUT friendly."
"Not now!" BrightFlight said exasperatedly.
"They go by the name of ShadowClan."
"That's lovely."
"Well..."
"I'll strip the shadows off of them if they come anywhere near us."
"That's easy for you to say, but from what I hear they're a bunch of evil old characters who live for bloodshed."
"Well it'll be THEIR blood shed if you want anything to go by."
Starry coughed. "Maybe, but perhaps that's easier said than done..."
She trailed off as a group of tattered, beaten chickens emerged from the trees by the boundary. They were cackling evilly, sharpening their claws on stone by the path, getting ready to tear apart the flesh of a recently slaughtered rat they'd caught. One sank his long beak into its thigh, eyes glinting at the scent of fresh blood.
BrightFlight winced. "and perhaps you're right."
"You talking to me?" snickered one of the younger ones of the group.
"IvyPaw!" warned an older member.
BrightFlight glared right back. "No, I'm not, rat face." He shoved her roughly. She glowered, hackles rising.
"IvyPaw!!" the older chicken yelled.
Starry put a wing on bright's shoulder.
He felt angry at himself for acting so impulsively. He swore to his conscience that he'd never fire up so easily again. He wasn't usually the violent type at all, but times seemed to be changing...
The older Shadowclan warrior stepped forward. "Look, not to be threatening or anything, but some of our younger members have what I'd call a violent temperament. If that happens again, you're going to find yourself face down in the dirt. I'm sure Russetstar would like to settle in first before a full-on war breaks out."
And they left, without giving Bright a chance to reply.
"That was hairy," Starry commented.
"Hmph."
There was a tap on his wing. It was Delta, and his face relaxed.
Finally, something normal is still happening around here.
She was with an elderly rooster. "This is my father. Dad, BrightFlight and StarryNight."
They touched wings awkwardly.
"is this where you're staying now?" the old roo asked his daughter.
"Yes, I suppose," she replied. "I'm not going back to the House, at any rate."
"Oh you really didn't like it there, did you? I'm so glad they let me go. Perhaps being small and puny isn't the worst thing after all."
Delta looked down at her own small body, the very thing that had allowed her toescape the farmhouse coop after her father.
"No, but we have big hearts, dad!"
"Your mother did too. She was a great person." he said sadly.
Delta had never known her mother. She had grown up with the only kin she knew of, her kindly father who thought the world of her. She hadn't thought he childhood bad at all, despite the coop.
As a young pullet, she'd grown her startling speckles, "a gift from your mother," her dad had once told her, and cockerels were showing a decided interest. She hadn't ever wanted to have chicks before though, and she wouldn't have had the chance anyway because the humans took her eggs away every morning. She'd watch them shine a light through each one, and while most were put in regular cardboard cartons, once she saw one of hers be specially sorted and taken away in a large box - where to, she could not have imagined.
She drifted back to the present. Her father was chatting amiably with BrightFlight, while Starry rushed around preparing treats for everybody.It was only later that she did get some alone time with her old man.
"Dad... it's been so long since I saw you. What have you gottten up to?"
"Just my own life... I've been trying to pass on my herbal knowledge to others, I run a class every now and then, just with some old acquaintances."
(I wish I'd gotten up to where this leads to.
)
"Do you live on your own?"
"No, I'm currently sharing a place with another clan a stone's throw from here. MountainClan, they're called."
She made a mental note.
They talked, making up for lost time, until the sun disappeared over the horizon.